Russ Vetter, Leg III SHARK CRUISE. Although humans are supposed to be rational, humans decide who lives and who dies based on the curious calculus of cuddly. We despise sharks while tucking stuffed killer whale toys in the arms of our sleeping children, despite the fact that killer whales will attack and kill white sharks and most other large animals in the sea. This might seem of no consequence, but human emotions drive conservation actions that have profound effects on the functioning of marine ecosystems.

In the 1970’s the egregious killing of dolphins in tuna nets led to the passage of legislation that had profound effects on marine mammal conservation. Observers on tuna boats were required to carefully monitor the deaths of all marine mammals. During this same time, hundreds of millions of tons of the world’s sharks were killed in the same nets and thoughtlessly shoveled over the side, or worse, finned alive and sent to a watery grave. No one even thought to write down the numbers of sharks taken, even though sharks are an equally important component of the apex predator community along with tunas and dolphins. Because sharks and dolphins share the properties of long life, late age of first reproduction, and production of few live-born young, sharks populations and pelagic predator communities may be forever altered.

It has been said in Hollywood that any publicity, even bad publicity, is good. This week is Shark Week on the Discovery Channel and evenings finds the shark crew huddled around the satellite TV in the galley watching every minute. While often the footage is of sharks eating hunks of bait or banging into shark cages, at least the public is beginning to fall in love with sharks (as our “teacher at sea” Elizabeth Eubanks fell in love with this baby blue), as and they are starting to be concerned about the cruelty of the shark fin trade and the conservation of sharks in the wild. Who knows, someday we may be placing shark stuffies in the arms of our sleeping children. Shamu be warned. ABOARD THE DAVID STARR JORDAN, Off the Channel Islands, California.